Type 2 diabetes, also referred to as non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), afflicts between 80 and 90% of all diabetic patients in developed countries. In the United States alone, approximately 15 million people, and more than 100 million worldwide, are affected. Because this disorder is a late onset disease and occurs often in overweight persons it can be expected that the number of patients suffering from this disease will increase further. Patients suffering from type 2 diabetes usually still produce insulin but become increasingly resistant to their own insulin and to insulin therapy. A promising new class of drugs has been recently introduced that resensitizes patients to their own insulin (insulin sensitizers), thereby reducing blood glucose and triglyceride levels, and thus abolishing, or at least reducing, the requirement for exogenous insulin. Troglitazone (Resulin™) and rosiglitazone (Avandia™) belong to the thiazolidinediones (TZD) class of chemicals, and are the first representatives of this class of chemicals approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in the United States and several other countries. These compounds, however, have side effects including rare but severe liver toxicities (i.e., troglitazone) and they can increase body weight in humans. Such side effects are of major concern for patients who might require treatment for a decade or longer. Therefore, new and better drugs for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and related disorders are needed. New heterocyclic derivatives that are useful, for example, to modulate metabolism (such as, for example, lipid metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism) or adipocyte differentiation, and especially to treat type 2 diabetes and other diseases are disclosed.